Hewlett Packard Officejet L7680 All-in-One Printer Review

Bottom-Line: If your home office needs a scanner, copier, (photo) printer and fax, the HP Officejet L7860 should be given serious consideration.

The Officejet L7680 AIO is a multifunction printing device (compatible with PC as well as Macintosh) that allows you to print, scan, copy, and fax all from one unit.  The Officejet L7680 has the added capability of printing photos directly from the unit and will accept input from all manner of removable and or portable memory devices including SD Media, Multimedia Card (MMC), Compact Flash (I, II), Memory Sticks, Smart Media, xD-Picture Card, and USB port for connecting directly to a digital camera.  All of these connections are situated on the front of the unit, wherein there is also a USB connection.       

Make no mistake this is a big unit, indeed the OJ L7680 AIO is larger than the OJ 7310 it replaces but not by much.  Despite the units size I am able to easily lift it with little effort.  Anyone familiar with the earlier HP AIO's will be right at home with the front panel controls, and I especially like the bright 2.5" color display.  Those not familiar with Officejet functionality should have little trouble becoming acquainted with the unit. 

One notable difference here, unlike its big brother, the OJ L7780, the OJ L7680 AIO does not ship with an extra 250 sheet paper tray; nor does the OJ 7680 offer wireless networking.  The lack of these features was not an issue to me, since I do not need large capacity printing, and I can live without wireless networking since the printer is attached to a Linksys WRTAP-54G Wireless-G router/access point/hub.

Wired networking is built into the OJ L7680 AIO; the machine has built-in 10/100 Ethernet port.  Once set up, computers speak directly to the printer abrogating the need for a dedicated print server, or sharing via Windows.  Note: the OJ L7680 AIO can also be connected directly to a PC via a USB cable (not included), in which case its printer functionality can be shared via Windows.        

The OJ L7680 AIO also features an automatic document feeder, copy collating, two-sided print, fax, copy and scan; copy, scan, and print up to legal size; and 150-sheet total input paper capacity.   The OJ L7680 AIO offers print and copy speeds up to 35 pages per minute (ppm) black, and up to 34 ppm color, with up to 4,800-optimized dpi color and laser-quality text.  Finally, the OJ L7680 AIO can fax in black and color and scan with resolutions of up to 2,400 x 4,800-dpi (48-bit) optical.

Software Installation

Be prepared, this installation will take a while to accomplish (up to 35 minutes on older machines) and could take up to 733MB of hard drive real estate.  And while it involves very little end user interface, the installation plows through several steps before it accomplishes its goal of tying the client workstation(s) directly to the OJ L7680 AIO. 

Note: it is recommended that you actually start the software installation process while you are assembling the printer.  Once the print heads and cartridges are installed a rather lengthy (30 minutes) setup process takes place inside the printer.  It is during this phase that the software installation should be started. 

My Viewpoint

One quibble: the memory card slots panel is black like the rest of the printer; this makes the writing very, very hard to read.  The silver background of the OJ 7310 AIO makes the card slot much easier to reader.  I think this falls in to the "what were they thinking" category.   

The OJ L7680 AIO represents a further advancement in the All-n-One functionality arena; finally we (the clamoring, demanding public) have hassle-free scanning and fax sharing across the network at a very reasonable price-point. 

Built-in wired Ethernet capability make the OJ L7680 AIO a versatile, flexible unit that is ideal for a small workgroup setting; I wouldn't install the unit on a floor with more then ten users, the user listing might grow too large and confused to manage.  If you or your small workgroup need a scanner, copier, printer and fax, the OJ L7680 AIO should be given serious consideration.